Supreme Court declines to hear case of a lobster fisherman who opposes boat tracking

PORTLAND, Maine -- The Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of a lobster fisherman who alleged the government requiring commercial fishing boats to use electronic tracking devices amounts to unreasonable search and seizure.

Maine lobster fisherman Frank Thompson sued after his state began requiring all federally permitted lobstermen to install GPS trackers on their boats to collect data that will help manage the industry. Thompson appealed to the high court after losing at the appeals court level.

The Supreme Court formally denied Thompson's petition on Oct. 5. The decision allows the state to collect “critically important” data, said Carl Wilson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

“It will inform the lobster stock assessment, enhance offshore enforcement, and support better decision-making in a range of federal management contexts,” Wilson said in a statement.

Thompson's lawsuit raised questions about the limits of government surveillance and the ways commercial fisheries are managed. Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented Thompson, said in a Tuesday statement that “the fight over whether the government can use industry regulations to sidestep Fourth Amendment protections is far from over.”

The foundation said in a blog post that the court's decision means some 1,200 Maine lobster fishermen who hold federal permits can be tracked. However, the legal battle over government surveillance isn't over, the foundation said.

Environmental groups that have called for more commercial fishing surveillance cheered the decision. Some have said the industry needs to be monitored more closely to protect rare North Atlantic right whales, which are vulnerable to getting entangled in fishing gear. Others have said the declining lobster population needs to be more closely monitored.

“New England’s lobster population has declined dangerously,” said Conservation Law Foundation associate attorney Sarah Shahabi. “Tracking lobster boats provides the timely and accurate data that regulators need. This decision is a valuable step toward appropriately managing this iconic species.”

Most of the U.S. lobster catch comes to the docks in Maine, where lobster fishing is a key piece of the state's history and culture. Catch at the docks is often worth more than $500 million annually.